Eastern National Publishes The Moton School Story: Children of Courage

Fort Washington, PA, November 16, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Before the sit-ins in Greensboro, before the Montgomery bus boycott, there was the student strike at the Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. In 1951, Barbara Johns led her follow students in protest against the inadequate and overcrowded facilities they faced. Their strike, which changed the course of American history, is the focus of Eastern National’s new publication, The Moton School Story: Children of Courage.

Moton High School was built in 1939 and designed to accommodate 180 students. By 1951, it housed over 450 students. Some students attended class in “tar paper shacks” erected to deal with overcrowding. The facilities leaked and students sat with open umbrellas in the classrooms when it rained. The potbelly stoves were too hot to sit near and students shivered in winter coats away from the stoves. They had enough. Johns’ compelling words exhorted them to go on strike in protest until county officials agreed to build a new school. The resulting lawsuit to achieve educational equality, Davis v. Prince Edward, became the only student-initiated case of the five cases that comprised Brown v. Board of Education. Their journey was long yet fruitful. The U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Education concluded that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” Read about these courageous students in this new publication that details the history of civil rights in education, specifically as it related to Prince Edward County, and the role its citizens played in America’s struggle to move from a segregated society to an integrated one.

The Moton School Story: Children of Courage is available now for $5.95 on www.eParks.com. For more information about the book and other Eastern National publications and products, please visit www.eParks.com or call 1-877-NAT-PARK (1-877-628-7275).

Eastern National, a not-for-profit cooperating association with the National Park Service and other public trust partners, promotes the public’s understanding of America’s national parks and other public trust partners by providing quality educational experiences, products, and services. Since 1947, Eastern National has donated over $105 million to the National Park Service in the form of direct donations and grants which support vital educational and interpretive programs in America’s national parks.